“Beyond the edge of the world there’s a space where emptiness and substance neatly overlap, where past and future form a continuous, endless loop. And, hovering about, there are signs no one has ever read, chords no one has ever heard.”
Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

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Monday, September 21, 2015

Back to Cymru, the party noticed it had grown noticeably in the week they had been away. Arriving at the outer gate - which they had fled recently fled the dwarven and goblin guard - they are surprised no one stopped to question them.

Heading along the main road to the Old Town, Nota'Cor noted the road was better and the buildings finished. Grind wondered if they had skipped through time.

At the gate to the central city, they find a year and half has passed since they left. They at the inner gate from a bribed dwarf that in that interval, Loren Gracchi decided to marry his daughter Gilna to the human without the lyre guaranteeing the blessing of Abadar. The High Priest of Abadar gave his blessing anyway.

The other four prime families - Aurem, Gemma, Ferrum, and Carbona - led an assault on the Gracchi holdings. Lorem Gracchi, many of his house guards and family, the High Priest of Abadar, and most of the Death's Head mercenary company were killed in the exchange.

Gilna fled to sea with the ogre Halen before the rest of the Gracchi ships were burned.

Esteban Gracchi returned from Darvek as quickly as he could. He denounced his father to prevent the rest of the Gracchi fortunes from being seized. The prime families agreed to Esteban's takeover, branding Loren as a traitor. The Gracchi family, however, was reduced from a prime family to a secun family in status and removed from the Prime Council.

Unemployed with no home of reward for their quest, the party decided to send a runner to contact Esteban Gracchi and then registered their deed for the property given to them by the wizard Rista.

At the deed office, they needed a company name to register the deed. After some deliberation, they decided to call themselves the North Cymru Irregulars.

Visiting their property they found an empty field near the north wall and the ocean. A wide terrace about fifteen feet below the field level also belonged to the property as well as some beach front. Grind unlocked a great iron door set into the cliffside at the terrace level with the iron key given to him by Rista.

Inside they found a great hall with kitchens and rooms and halls branching off. Grind noticed that ceilings were higher than fifteen feet. They stored their supplies and each took an empty room. With no furnishings, the party decided they needed to obtain work for funding.

The next day they were invited to the Old City by Esteban Gracchi who met them at a park near what had been the Great Church of Abadar. Now, the the priests of Grumbar the Stone ran the Church with the other gods having altars within.

Esteban Gracchi asked them to testify at a Council meeting that he had hired them to betray his father. He hoped to use their testimony to gain back his family's position as a Prime family.

Grind, Nota'Cor, and Malpais agreed to testify.

Returning to their headquarters, a group of wizards in red and purple ambushed the party in an alley. They announced it was time for Nota'Cor to be punished. Dispatching their attackers, the group ran afoul of the New City Cymru Guard, whom Malpais insulted (compel).
Grind managed to befriend the dwarf, Sergeant Duncan, by offering him their captured ruffian prisoners.

Back at their headquarters, the party was met my the Bakali Kryplis. He told them Rista had asked him to check up on them. He also informed them that a wizard, Hawkin Jones, was looking for help.

The game went ok. Fate is working well for roleplay but I'm not feeling the combat was meaningful. Continue on Fragments 1.18

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Standing at the edge of the hedge, the party spied a village halfway to the tree and began walking toward it. Gretel practiced transforming dry grass into stalks of candy. Grind spotted a group of six individuals in the distance marching toward them. Malpais decided to scout ahead.

Mal rolled very badly on his Stealth roll, so in the spirit of Fate rather than say he failed I had him hop into a strangely clear-cut section of grass where the soldiers spotted him. One opened fire and the shot exploded near Mal like a shell. The soldiers only appeared to carry regular rifles.

Exposed, the group rushed the soldiers who Louis quickly realized were twelve foot tall nutcrackers firing large exploding walnuts. Gretel transformed the ground into taffy (Create an Advantage) that she would eventually use to grab the nutcrackers. Grind and Louis charged the group. While Mal and Nota'Cor fired at them from range. Eventually one dropped it's rifle and conceded - running back to the village - while the others were broken to pieces.

At the the town, the giant matryoshka doll commanding her army of nutcracker soldiers, ordered a cannon brought out to attack.

The party decided to distract the village while Malpais and Louis snuck in. Nota'Cor set the grassland ablaze and fired bolts of fire at the houses. Grind and Gretel hung back and made fun of the matryoshka.

Once at the village, Malpais discovered humans who were loading a wagon with giant acorns. He befriended one old man who promised to help them escape with the acorns. Mal and Louis rushed the wagon once the old man had distracted the matryoshka and the trio rode quickly out of the town.

The old man gave Mal a small box as a gift that mesmorized him and then knocked Louis unconscious. He removed Louis' left eye and told him, "Remember that Rasputin did this to you!" before running off. Grind and Gretel reached the wagon and helped stabilize Louis and wake up Mal. They rushed to the hedge where they met Nota'Cor fleeing giant nutcrackers or "Taunting them" as he claimed.

Traveling back to the camp, they met Captain Rista who offered them the song. Louis decided to go with the party. Nota'Cor played the lyre and opened a portal to Tirane by just outside Cymru.

The group seems to prefer Fate Core so we will stick with it. I will probably use some Atomic Robo and Mindjammer rules to expand on the setting.